Crows are often lambasted as filthy, noisy, thieving birds. But let me share a story.

More than a week ago, I was walking through the woods at Elmwood Park when I saw a couple of crows and a red-tailed hawk in pitched and chilling battle in the trees. My sympathies immediately went out to the hawk - aren't hawks, after all, magnificent and valiant raptors? - especially since the crows, to my surprise, were clearly getting the better of the deal, and making it very hard for the hawk to get out of the trees.

The next day, when the dog and I again headed for the woods, there was a string of crows that stretched out through the trees into a maple or two in the open park, and they began cawing in a very specific way - almost like a code - as soon as we approached. Then one or two of them tagged along above us as we walked throough the woods, clearly trying to sound an alarm, until we rounded a trail and - as the crows in the trees went nuts - found the answer to the mystery:

An injured crow, maybe 50 yards in front of us, was hopping through the woods. My instant bet was that he'd been attacked by the hawk, and that his buddies had been coming to his rescue. I quickly diverted the dog's attention to make sure he didn't see the crow, and we went the other way to leave the crow in peace.

Anyway, here's the end of the story: I was in the woods again yesterday, and damned if the crows weren't showing the same behavior. They formed a line in the trees and a few of them followed along as we walked, which to me - by this point - clearly seemed to indicate the hurt crow was still alive and well and eluding predators, somewhere in the woods.

Again, the dog and I turned around and headed the other way. The episode left me thinking about how I'd thought of crows only a few weeks ago as dirty, lousy scavengers - and had then seen them behave like ferociously dedicated, smart and selfless birds willing to fight against a hawk and then stand endless guard to defend one of their own.